


you & me

by kingchad



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Love Potion/Spell, M/M, Movie: Descendants (2015)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-22
Updated: 2019-08-22
Packaged: 2020-09-23 20:04:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20345944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kingchad/pseuds/kingchad
Summary: Jay knows that he's probably going to do most of the heavy lifting on the plan to steal Fairy Godmother's wand. And if that means giving Ben a love potion? Well, he's 100% prepared to do that, and also professional enough to not fall in love with Ben in the process.





	you & me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jayflorian](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jayflorian/gifts).

> this fic is of course for Jack who is the only reason i write anything ever. you can and should [go follow him!](https://jayflorian.tumblr.com)

Jay initially assumes that he is going to be _ very _ involved in the plan to steal Fairy Godmother’s wand, because, c’mon. It’s _ stealing. _ Jay’s self-aware enough to know that a good chunk of his personality is built around his relationship with theft. And, fine, maybe that has something to do with his desire to impress his dad. That’s unimportant. What _ is _important is that theft is his bread and butter, if he’s using that expression right. He probably isn’t. 

Linguistics aside, he’s _ the _ thief of the group. Sure, Evie might steal hearts, and Carlos tags along to pickpocket sometimes, but Jay’s the only one who does both, not only intentionally, not only consistently, but _ well_. Jay steals everything, valuable or not, and he’s good at it and he knows it. It’s actually the only thing he feels good at, most of the time.

So. Fairy Godmother’s wand. Theft. Does he need to say any more?

And then he royally screws up when the time actually comes. He’s mostly blaming it on Mal - she should’ve given them more time to prepare, you’re never supposed to go for a mark when you have no information. But if he’s honest with himself, he acted super impulsively out of his own desire to be impressive, because Carlos and Evie had gotten them to the museum, and Mal had not only gotten them _ in, _ but humiliated Jay in the process. Jay hadn’t done anything when he was supposed to be _ the _guy for the job. So he acted out. It’s an issue for him, he’s aware of that. It’s just never messed up anything this big before.

They get away untouched, and nobody suspects a thing, but Jay’s pride has taken a serious blow. He’s gotta find a way to fix this.

* * *

During Remedial Goodness 101 or whatever that class is called, Fairy Godmother sort of mistakes Jay’s playful bullying for real bullying. It probably doesn’t help that this is the second time she’s seen him manhandle Carlos, but Carlos is so _ tiny _ and Jay really can’t help himself. She doesn’t really do anything about it besides make them join tourney, which Jay thinks is kind of a weak punishment, because what if he _ had _been bullying Carlos? She probably isn’t used to having to actually punish kids. 

No matter how easy a “punishment” it might be, Jay doesn’t want to do tourney. There aren’t really any sports on the Isle, unless you count gang activity as a sport, which Jay doesn’t think is _ entirely _accurate. The point being: he doesn’t know if he’s any good at sports and he’s a little anxious about finding out. He’s seen tourney on the Isle televisions before, and it’s never looked like anything accessible. It actually looks really, really needlessly complicated. And he doesn’t need to be bad at another thing right now. His pride isn’t going to be able to take it.

When he complains about it to Mal, she looks at him like he has two heads. Well, he should clarify, he doesn’t actually mention anything about pride or insecurity or whatever. He sort of just whines about being tired, which Mal rolls her eyes at.

“It’ll be the perfect opportunity to get all buddy-buddy with Ben,” Mal says, steely. “I can’t do _ everything _myself, so you and Carlos should just take advantage of this and get in some masculine bonding over sports or whatever.”

So Jay can’t bail on tourney, no matter how much he wishes he could. He doesn’t want Mal mad at him, especially not when she’s already in a bad mood because of the museum incident. And Carlos definitely wouldn’t bail with him, anyway, and he doesn’t want to leave Carlos alone with a bunch of people who may or may not support the decision to bring over some VKs, so that’s that. 

* * *

Tourney actually goes _ really _ well and Jay is ecstatic about it. He was just fully not expecting it to go well, is the thing, because he sort of just got on the field and impulsively went for it. When Coach singled him out, he was entirely prepared to get yelled at in front of the whole team, and instead he thinks he accidentally gained a father figure. Who thinks he has _ potential_. Which is definitely more concrete praise in 30 minutes than his real dad gave him in 16 years. And Jay kinda can’t shut up about it. He’s worried about annoying Carlos, who didn’t do so good at tourney practice, but Carlos doesn’t care so much. Carlos and Evie are actually really excited for him, and it’s Mal who ends up being a total buzzkill about the whole thing, because _ Carlos _ is getting help from Ben and thus getting an opportunity to learn more about the wand, while _ Jay _made himself stand out and body-checked Chad.

Carlos points out that he wasn’t intentionally bad at tourney, and Evie says that Chad probably deserves to get body-checked. Mal concedes that Chad probably did deserve it, but doesn’t stop being miffed at Jay.

But he still _ did _find a new father figure so Jay decides to count it as a partial win anyway.

* * *

Carlos gains approximately 0 pieces of useful information from Ben’s tourney lesson (scratch that, 0 pieces of useful information and a dog), and Mal, who is super dissatisfied with the amount of progress that has been made so far, and who _ also _ just found out that Ben’s partner gets to be up close and personal to that stupid wand during coronation, decides they need to take extreme measures. She decides on a love potion, and nobody can really see any _ glaring _ faults with that, or at least any she’ll listen to, so they sneak into the kitchens in the middle of the night. 

Personally, Jay thinks that rushing into another plan so soon is a mistake, especially when it’s under such a tight time constraint. Even assuming that this love potion works without a hitch and they _ do _ get front row coronation seats, there’s still probably a good chance that security will be boosted because of their presence, or that the whole layout might be rearranged. It’s just, overall, sloppy and desperate.

And that’s without even getting into the logistics of _ who _ is gonna seduce Ben. Jay thinks Mal is probably convinced it’s going to be her, but Mal doesn’t know anything about the intricacies of relationships. She’d definitely rely way too much on the fact that Ben would be spelled and totally not consider that she still needed to make the relationship _ look _ real for everyone else in Auradon, everyone who _ wouldn’t _see her through rose-colored glasses and who would definitely not assume the best of her. So, whether Mal likes it or not, Jay’s definitely not going to let her ruin this already-fragile plan.

If the circumstances were different, Evie would be the ideal candidate. Evie is everyone’s type, and she’s incredibly charismatic, not to mention romantic. Normally, she’d probably jump at the chance to date the future king of Auradon, but Evie has also recently started dating Chad. Jay doesn’t think that’s a relationship that will stand the test of time, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re dating _now _and Evie isn’t going to dump the boyfriend she just got. Besides, now that Jay thinks about it, Evie’s dreams of marrying into Auradonian royalty would probably compromise her. It’s entirely possible that she really _would _fall in love with Ben and then the whole plan would be scrapped. So that’s definitely out.

Carlos could do it, Jay supposes. Ben definitely likes Carlos a lot already, but Carlos would probably feel bad about it _because _Ben already likes him. Besides, whoever ends up dating Ben is going to have to take a lot of shit from Audrey and probably some other Auradon kids as well. Carlos could deal with it, but Jay doesn’t really want him to have to. 

Which just leaves...Jay. He knows everything about manipulating people into liking him, love potion or not, because people will let you rob them blind if they’re getting something out of it. People wouldn’t question it if he dated Ben, in fact, most other students would probably be jealous _ of _ Ben - because Jay’s been working on cultivating his reputation from the second they got here, and he knows he’s already something of a hot commodity. And Jay _ knows _how to plan a theft, knows what information to get and how to get it, so they wouldn’t be dead in the water when coronation actually came. Easy pickings, and just like that, his pride would be mended and he’s place in the group would feel secure again.

It’s kind of perfect. All he has to do in convince Mal.

* * *

Mal shows _ markedly _ less resistance than Jay anticipated. She actually looks relieved, which Jay takes as a sign of Mal’s faith in him, even if it probably isn’t one. She reminds him that the love potion will make Ben react to the first person he sees, so that he should probably give it in private to minimize the risk of Ben falling in love with the wrong person. Jay has already _ thought _about that, but he doesn’t really want to annoy Mal, so he just accepts the bag of cookies with a smirk and a nod.

Jay ends up giving them to Ben later that day, because there’s a tourney game later and he can play it up as a good luck gift. There’s other people around, but people usually have a hard time tearing their eyes away from Jay, and Ben’s not much different. 

“I’ve never really baked anything before,” Jay shrugs, casually handing Ben a cookie. “And I’m not really sure what cookies are supposed to taste like, anyway, ‘cause we didn’t have them on the Isle or anything.” Jay sees Ben’s guard drop a little bit at that, so to drop it a little bit more, he adds, “Listen, you don’t have to try them. I get it. I wouldn’t take anything from a villain kid either, if I was you.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Ben assures, worry lighting up his face. “I’m sure they’re great!” To prove it, he bites into the cookie, and Jay sees his pupils dilate just the tiniest bit.

“How ya feelin’, bro?” Jay grins. He can afford to be a little smarmy right now. He’s earned it.

“Um,” Ben starts, and then stops. He’s looking right into Jay’s eyes, and Jay wonders what he’s seeing. Ben’s own eyes look lost, but warm, and Jay fleetingly thinks that he’s never seen eyes that exact shade of brown. Jay’s definitely not gonna mind having to date Ben, that’s for sure. 

Jay tilts his head, laughing a little bit. He grabs the rest of the unfinished cookie back from Ben, jokingly looking it over. “That good a cookie, huh?” He gives Ben a quick pat on the shoulder. “Hey, I’ll see you later at the game, dude. Take it easy.”

He quickly strides off, leaving Ben stunned in the middle of the hallway. Jay’s kind of excited to see this plan unfold. Ben’s gonna be a fun temporary boyfriend.

**Author's Note:**

> another chapter fic? yeah, i'm sorry too! this one is actively less work than prom au so it should hopefully be finished very soon!
> 
> you can come talk to me on tumblr @[kingchad](https://kingchad.tumblr.com)
> 
> title + chapter titles are from [you & me](https://open.spotify.com/album/3luWJ3RzWQB5ZnERtyV3HB) by that band honey which is...booboo stewart's irl band....and it's very good you should listen to it!
> 
> and, as always, consider donating to [The Cameron Boyce Foundation](https://thecameronboycefoundation.networkforgood.com/)! it's a phenomenal cause and a wonderful way to honor Cameron and his memory.


End file.
